Smokey wood burner help

[Boiler74]

I would like to seek the wisdom of the forum on a problem I had tonight. I was given a small wood burning stove by a family friend. They bought it during the 70's energy crisis and never installed it. It says "Fire Horse" on the door underneath three screw down dampers. Sat in their garage for years. Then I get it. When I built my house I put a flu into the basement for a backup wood burner. Finally installed this wood stove before winter as a backup. I don't need to use it much as I have geothermal heat. But I wanted to fire it up just as a test. So I did that tonight and filled my house with smoke. When I installed it, I used high heat caulk at all joints to help seal. But I still got smoke.

I did notice some of the smoke came from the outside case of the burner itself. As it was the first time this had been used after sitting so long, I figured that was the cause. Just burning off crud from all those years. So I waited until that stopped, aired the house out, and kept burning. More smoke followed.

Possible causes

1. My house if very tight. Could the stove not be drafting well? I did try cracking a window, but couldn't tell if that helped.
2. I ran the HVAC fan to draw the heat into the rest of the house. Could that pull smoke out of the stove?
3. Did I have the three screw down dampers closed too much, or open too much. Tried both ways.
4. Did I not seal the joints of the flu pipe enough. The pipe is simply a 90 out of the back, about 4 feet of pipe, and another 90 into the thimble. Concrete all around.


Those are just my thoughts. Any others greatly appreciated. I would like to get this figured out before I have to use this for real in a power outage or worse.

Any help appreciated.

Josh

 

[Egon]

Describe your chimney a little more if could please.

Does your house have make up air?

 

[mbohuntr]

!st) check chimney with mirror for blockage/damage.
2nd) check chimney for draft by blowing out a smokey candle and hold wick near timble and check for draft.
3rd) follow the trail backwards,look into the 6"pipe of the stove, you should be able to get a clear a path back into the fire chamber.
The topmost damper will regulate the amount of heat the stove retains, and possibly causes smoking by cutting off the draft. My old fisher didn't have one, so I put one in the pipe.
The bottom dampers control the amount of air it gets to feed the flame. neither damper should close absolutely tight as that causes creasote/smoke by cooling the fire too much. (that's why outdoor boilers smoke so much, but then you won't care about chimney fires. Hope that helped...

 

[MossRoad]

Since you mentioned your house was tight, I would first suspect you have no draft going up the chimney.

With the stove cold, open the door on it and see if you feel a draft going up the chimney. As someone suggested, blow out a candle and hold it in the door of the burner. If the smoke goes in, you have some draft. If it comes out, you have something sucking air down your chimney.

You also mentioned you had the flue for a while before installing the burner. Did you inspect the flue before you made your first fire? Could it be blocked by an animal nest, bee hive, birds, dead raccoon, etc...?

 

[Bill Barrett]

Do everything everyone else said.
Is it a insulated chimney?
Is the chimney outside and cold?
Is the chimney 3' above everything within 10'?

 

[GeneD14]

By the way: it's great to have a fellow Boiler Maker here!

The others have given you some good advice. I would also recommend the forums on at Hearth.com - Information on Gas Fireplaces, Wood Stoves, Gas Logs, Pellet Stoves, Fireplaces, Chimneys and Hearth Products for some real experts on wood burning.

Using an EPA rated high efficiency fireplace our heat bill is now zero. It has been alot easier than we thought. The technology has made quantum leaps in the last 30 years.

Good luck and "Go Boilers!"

 

[mbohuntr]

Oh Yeah... thanks for mentioning the "something sucking down the chimney" comment. Like they said, if you have a REALLY tight house, a furnace or gas water heater could be pulling the cold air back down the chimney. You can get around this and gain a bit of efficiency by installing outside combustion air on the stove(if it has that capability) I ducted the lower dampers on my fireplace down into the basement, and through the sill plate. You might get away with a rigid non-combustable pipe w/damper through your floor into the basement. This will feed your fire from either non living areas, or outside, eliminating drafts. Talk to a expert who can see your setup before you start.

 

[dmccarty]

You need combustion air if your house is really tight you might have a problem. When we built the house we had a six inch PVC pipe run from outside the house, under the slab, and ending in the hearth behind the stove. This brings in all the air the stove needs. When the stove is running you can feel the "breeze" from the pipe as the house air is consumed by the fire and more air is drawn in by the pipe.

It can take awhile for the draft to start flowing up when in a cold chimney.

Turning on the HVAC fan could effect the draft. In our old house running the HVAC or clothes dryer while starting a fire in the fire place would draw smoke into the house. Once the draft started flowing in the right direction for a bit of time then running the HVAC or clothes dryer was ok.

Our current stove can leak smoke if it is cold, the damper is wide open, there are not enough ashes on the bottom of the stove, and the draft has not started flowing up the chimney. Its just a whiff of smoke that I think is coming from the ash door in the bottom of the stove. If there are not enough ashes in the floor of the stove the smoke can leak out until the chimney drafts correctly.

Is your chimney sized correctly? Are there any bends in the chimney? I think the rule of thumb is that there are no more than 180 degrees of bends in the chimney.

Later,
Dan

 

[Highbeam]

That stove is illegal to install in most places, including my state. New installations must be EPA certified woodstoves with a few exemptions for furnaces or cooking stoves. You didn't get a permit did you?

Assuming your chimney is clean and clear....

That old stove will be difficult if not impossible to get hooked up directly to outside air so cracking a window is your only answer. Then light a loose paper fire in the stove to warm the flue and get a draft going in the right direction to suck smoke from your home. You've got a cold chimney that isn't sucking yet.

Once the draft is pulling then you can start the real fire.

Realize that once you let the fire go out that the flue could again reverse and allow outside air to flow down the (now stinky) flue and into your basement.

I'd give it back and get a modern stove.

 

[Boiler74]

First, remember that this is just a backup heat source. I'll only use it if I really need to. So I'm not going to go out and buy a new one, just to sit in the basement unused most of the time. My geothermal is a **** of a lot more efficient than any wood stove.

I did light a small fire to warm up the flu. I've learned at least that much from my fireplace.

My house is 3 years old. The fireplace and this flu are pure masonry, done by a master mason that has done this for years. And it is capped at the top so no critters can get down there. So I'm not worried about the flu. After the fire was going, it seemed to draft well. Thats why the smoke confuses me. It does have 3 90 degree bends. Two in the metal pipe, and one in the masonry. After that, it's a straight shot up.

I'll try the candle trick tonight. My guess is the house is just too tight, and the HVAC being on didn't help. I'll update later.

Thanks,
Josh

GO BOILERS!!